I'd like to start a thread on books to see what people are reading, have read, or plan on reading. Recommendations, reviews, rants and raves are all welcome.
Non-architecture related books can and should be posted as well.
Just finished reading:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Started today (second attempt):
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
This semester (completed): Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, Stan Allen The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
recommended: Zen in the Art of Archery, Eugen Herrigel and Daisetz T. Suzuki
I also second Invisible Cities.
Intention, by Elizabeth Anscombe... a philosophical work on the concept of action (what it means to do something or intend to do something). A very interesting read
an invigorating read on how industrial clustering might boost the economy of a medium sized city and reshape an urban region...really challenges Richard Florida and his "creative class" concept....
truly masterful....a must read....a can't putter downer
oh, and to those in the middle of reading 'thinking with type', I would feel free to skip around. The 'type crimes' section at the back will help you understand the stuff at the front a bit better.
I just finished 1968 by mark kurlansky (author of salt) - its a history of 1968 - specifically student protests around the world and the political instability of that moment.
I highly recommend it. It really got me fired up, and i realized how much 2007 should be like 1968, and then made me lament all the reason why it won't be.
It also made me reflect on how little radicalism there is in our society these days.
cmu, I finished reading Collapse by Jared Diamond not too long ago as well. Great read, but I often found the huge assumptions and gaps in logic a bit unsettling (much like his previous Guns, Germs and Steel).
Thinking with Type is a great find and an excellent reference book.
Anyone have any recommendations for books on mapping?
Here's a non-architecture one......Just finished reading "What is the What" by Dave Eggers. An excellent and enlightening book about the life of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. I highly recommend it.
I've been looking through Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape. If you're at all a geek for industrial architecture this is one of the best books out there for you. It tells you what all that stuff out there glimpsed from the highway is. Ever wanted to be able to spot the difference between an asphalt factory and concrete yard? Ever wonder what all of those intricate pipes in a petroleum plant are for? This'll tell you. Great photos, too.
my incredibly amazing girlfriend (try to find the one's in finance, not architecture) got me this for my birthday last week.....she's amazing, and so are the books.
get them, and you'll lose all of your friends, and maybe even the girl who got you the books, because you can NOT stop looking at them.... (it'll also ruin your thesis)
vado - Chandler and Hammett are the sh*t. I need to reread some of that stuff, too. Ever read Hammett's 'The Glass Key'? It was the inspiration for the Big Lebowski, partly.
the big lebowski and the altmanization of marlowe in the long goodbye makes a good double feature. i like furst a lot although i couldnt get into blood victory for some reason. i love ambler.
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Frank Rich
Behind Hitler's Lines - Thomas H. Taylor
Living Homes:Sustainable Architecture and Design - MacGregor & Trulsson
currently: - "fountainhead" - i know im lame...i should of read this book years ago...i might of quit college and saved myself the $113,000 loan bill
-recently:(last 6 mths) - "on the road" Jack Kerouac
- "Sweet Chaos The Grateful Dead's American Adventure"
- "Cradle to Cradle"
- "An Island at the Center of the World"
- "Tantric love making - Soul Sex for 2"
last year: -Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia
-How Cities Work
-The Davinci Code
-Streetcar Suburbs
-Crabgrass Frontier
reading list
I'd like to start a thread on books to see what people are reading, have read, or plan on reading. Recommendations, reviews, rants and raves are all welcome.
Non-architecture related books can and should be posted as well.
Just finished reading:
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Started today (second attempt):
Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
personally, Architecture for the poor - Hassan Fhatti
and The Spiders House - Paul Bowles
right now im reading Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed - Jared Diamond
:
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein
This semester (completed):
Practice: Architecture, Technique and Representation, Stan Allen
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
recommended:
Zen in the Art of Archery, Eugen Herrigel and Daisetz T. Suzuki
I also second Invisible Cities.
Intention, by Elizabeth Anscombe... a philosophical work on the concept of action (what it means to do something or intend to do something). A very interesting read
Le Corbusier
Taschen Basic series by Jean-Louis Cohen
recommended
13 ways: theoretical investigations in architecture by Robert Harbison
Just about finished "the man who tried to save the world".
Next stop - "captain america issue #25" - cap dies.
"Grand Rapids Made" by Richard J. Broene
an invigorating read on how industrial clustering might boost the economy of a medium sized city and reshape an urban region...really challenges Richard Florida and his "creative class" concept....
truly masterful....a must read....a can't putter downer
Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory by David Grahame Shane
great book for urban designers....i also saw Grahame give a lecture about his book at the Cooper Union last November
i just purchased "thinking with type" which was recommended on one of the other threads on this site (by rationalist i think, or maybe e)
flipping through, it seems like it will be an excellent resource
I'm reading that too, cln1, along with "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NIght"
My school's having a book sale in the lobby downstairs. I just picked up Henry Dreyfuss' Designing for People.
And now that I have a few hours to wait before next class, I'm going to start reading it.
I just finished reading New York Underground by Julia Solis. A very nice read.
Currently:
Ellis - A Social History of the Machine Gun
Recently:
Viollet-le-Duc - Annals of a Fortress
Virilio - Art and Fear
no need to repost my recommendation of Thinking with Type (Ellen Lupton) then. = )
Also recommend: Life and Death of the Great American City (Jane Jacobs)
oh, and to those in the middle of reading 'thinking with type', I would feel free to skip around. The 'type crimes' section at the back will help you understand the stuff at the front a bit better.
Currently reading:
Theoretical Anxiety and Design Strategies by Raphael Moneo
Thinking Architecture by Peter Zumthor
I just finished 1968 by mark kurlansky (author of salt) - its a history of 1968 - specifically student protests around the world and the political instability of that moment.
I highly recommend it. It really got me fired up, and i realized how much 2007 should be like 1968, and then made me lament all the reason why it won't be.
It also made me reflect on how little radicalism there is in our society these days.
thanks for the tip rationalist, the book was just delivered yesterday and i plan on starting this week. i shall start with that section!
cmu, I finished reading Collapse by Jared Diamond not too long ago as well. Great read, but I often found the huge assumptions and gaps in logic a bit unsettling (much like his previous Guns, Germs and Steel).
Thinking with Type is a great find and an excellent reference book.
Anyone have any recommendations for books on mapping?
Here's a non-architecture one......Just finished reading "What is the What" by Dave Eggers. An excellent and enlightening book about the life of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. I highly recommend it.
I've been looking through Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape. If you're at all a geek for industrial architecture this is one of the best books out there for you. It tells you what all that stuff out there glimpsed from the highway is. Ever wanted to be able to spot the difference between an asphalt factory and concrete yard? Ever wonder what all of those intricate pipes in a petroleum plant are for? This'll tell you. Great photos, too.
my incredibly amazing girlfriend (try to find the one's in finance, not architecture) got me this for my birthday last week.....she's amazing, and so are the books.
get them, and you'll lose all of your friends, and maybe even the girl who got you the books, because you can NOT stop looking at them.... (it'll also ruin your thesis)
reading jonathon franzen's how to be alone...
just bought a matching set of ten hardbacks including...
the big sleep/journey into fear/the maltese falcon/confidential agent etc for four bucks.
here's another good urban book that I read for thesis:
Drosscape: Wasting Land in Urban America - Alan Berger
vado - Chandler and Hammett are the sh*t. I need to reread some of that stuff, too. Ever read Hammett's 'The Glass Key'? It was the inspiration for the Big Lebowski, partly.
Speaking of noir, I really like Kenneth Fearing's The Big Clock and Alan Furst's Night Soldiers.
the big lebowski and the altmanization of marlowe in the long goodbye makes a good double feature. i like furst a lot although i couldnt get into blood victory for some reason. i love ambler.
i am also checking out [bHouse[/b] by Rachel Whiteread
my pile of books to read:
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Frank Rich
Behind Hitler's Lines - Thomas H. Taylor
Living Homes:Sustainable Architecture and Design - MacGregor & Trulsson
i bought this used...it's an instructional book on how to bind a book in leather, etc...do some suede covers
Just bit the bullet and bought Corb's Le Ouvre Complete. Stewing in that for a bit...
hijole silverlake!!! how much was that? do you have buyer's remorse?
currently: - "fountainhead" - i know im lame...i should of read this book years ago...i might of quit college and saved myself the $113,000 loan bill
-recently:(last 6 mths) - "on the road" Jack Kerouac
- "Sweet Chaos The Grateful Dead's American Adventure"
- "Cradle to Cradle"
- "An Island at the Center of the World"
- "Tantric love making - Soul Sex for 2"
last year: -Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia
-How Cities Work
-The Davinci Code
-Streetcar Suburbs
-Crabgrass Frontier
For those interesting in self-publishing (& self promotion), check out lulu.com.
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